


Regime change

by Sheffield



Series: Dark!Gregor [13]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27365617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheffield/pseuds/Sheffield
Summary: A planet is a large place. And a people is a large number.
Series: Dark!Gregor [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/51207
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Regime change

"It has nothing to do with us."  
"I disagree. We are all Barrayarans: sinews of the Imperium. And if the Imperium starts to rot from the head, how soon before the sinews start to rot, too?"  
"Have you ever seen the Emperor? In person, I mean, not just on a vid. Have you ever been in the same city as him, on the same continent, even? It's nothing to do with us. We have a Count we have only seen three times in our lives, and we have Rubin as headman and he's a better man than any I've seen in my lifetime. It has nothing - nothing - to do with us."  
"I disagree. If we sit quietly, here in our safe little haven miles away, and let the Emperor be corrupt and abusive and power-mad, then he will take that as permission to be corrupt and abusive and power-mad and, whatever happens to us, there will be people who suffer from it, fellow Barrayarans. And it's just wrong. We can do better."  
"You're talking treason, girl. The Emperor is the Emperor is the Emperor; better or worse."  
"Then why is that? Why should coming from one set of parents rather than another make a man the owner of three worlds? We the people should decide how we govern ourselves."  
"What, you want us to elect the Emperor? Like damned Betans?"  
"Betans! Like Barrayarans. We have cut Emperors into little pieces for corruption before now. Voting them out would be a better way, surely?"  
"Vote for the Emperor, ha. And I suppose you'd vote for the Counts and the District Agronomist and the village headman and whether your mother or father should set your bedtime?"  
"It would be," she said carefully, "a pleasure and a privilege."


End file.
